Parent interaction after divorce: Comparison of mediated and adversarial divorce processes

The interactions and perceptions of two groups of divorcing parents using different dispute resolution processes were compared at final divorce and at 1 and 2 years post-divorce. Using objective and standardized measures, the effectiveness of a comprehensive divorce mediation process was contrasted to the more customary two attorney adversarial process. The 153 parents at final divorce were part of a larger, longitudinal study of 435 divorcing men and women who were followed from the beginning of divorce to 2 years post-divorce. Parents in the divorce mediation group reported less conflict during the divorcing period, and less conflict, more contact and communication, and a more positive attitude toward the other parent at final divorce, results which remained significant after controlling for several baseline group differences. The majority of differences favoring the mediation intervention continued through the first year after divorce, and disappeared by the 2 year post-divorce data collection. The nature of the mediation process is discussed in relation to these parental behaviors and attitudes.     

Fourier components of moving gratings

In designing experiments in which the proximal stimulus is a moving grating (including cases in which the distal stimulus is stationary but eye movements play a significant role), one must consider the effects of the motion of the stimulus on its Fourier components in the spatiotemporal frequency domain. Some of these effects are unexpected and counterintuitive. For example, the Fourier components of a moving grating do not include its stationary (or “instantaneous”) spatial frequency. Thus there is no linear filter that can extract a stationary grating from a moving one. Several useful relations are given for analyzing such stimuli.     

Are high levels of religiosity inconsistent with a high valuation of science? Evidence from the United States,China and Iran

We asked whether high levels of religiosity are inconsistent with a high valuation of science. We explored this possibility in three countries that diverge markedly in the relation between the state and religion. Parents in the United States (n = 126), China (n = 234) and Iran (n = 77) completed a survey about their personal and parental stance towards science. The relation between religiosity and the valuation of science varied sharply by country. In the U.S. sample, greater religiosity was associated with a lower valuation of science. A similar but weaker negative relation was found in the Chinese sample. Parents in the Iranian sample, by contrast, valued science highly, despite high levels of religiosity. Given the small size of our United States and Iranian samples, and the non-probabilistic nature of our samples in general, we caution readers not to generalise our findings beyond the current samples. Despite this caveat, these findings qualify the assumption that religiosity is inconsistent with the valuation of science and highlight the role of sociocultural context in shaping adults' perception of the relation between religion and science.     

Using the shifting standards model of stereotype-based judgments to examine the impact of race on compensation decisions

The Shifting Standards Model (SSM) of stereotypic judgments is presented as a model of implicit bias that produces a psychological mechanism contributing to continued racial wage disparities. The SSM is used to explain race-based differences in subjective evaluations of compensation decisions. We report three experimental studies in which research participants made compensation decisions for either a White or Black employee. Across three studies, participants judged a Black employee's raise as subjectively better than a comparably described White employee's raise. Participants who work in Human Resources fields (Study 3) and those with experience making compensation decisions (Study 2) were as likely as other participants to show evidence of the shifting standards effect. The findings are discussed in the context of individual implicit biases contributing to continued wage disparities and potential organizational practices to ameliorate these influences.     

Affect and emotions in placebo and nocebo effects: What do we know so far?

Once considered nuisance variance in clinical trials, placebo effects and nocebo effects are now widely recognized as important and mutable psychobiological contributors to mental and physical health. Psychological theory explaining these effects emphasizes associative learning and conscious expectations. It has long been suggested, however, that affective states such as moods, emotions, and distress could play a significant role. In this paper, we draw together and review the empirical data linking affective states to placebo and nocebo effects. To organize this disparate literature, three questions are addressed: (1) Does pre‐existing state and trait affect modulate placebo and nocebo effects? (2) Does administering placebo and nocebo treatments change affective states, and if so, does the resulting affect causally influence placebo and nocebo effects? Finally, (3) Can placebo treatments be successfully employed as a regulation strategy to modulate different affective states? In reviewing the evidence in relation to these three questions, it is clear that affect does play a key role in placebo and nocebo effects in many circumstances, and further, there may be a reciprocal dynamic at play between a treatment event, affect, and placebo/nocebo effects. The paper concludes by discussing implications for theory and intervention and recommends future research priorities.